Saints Row Tech Preview: The reboot impresses us on PC

Saints Row is back with a 2022 reboot, with developer Volition updating the series with an improved in-house engine. At the August 23 release we’ll be able to see how all consoles fare, including the PS5, Series X and last-gen devices, but today is just about our hands-on experience with an early PC build running on an RTX 3080 -Computer is running. We wanted to know how the PC version looks at 4K and max settings, and what hints we could find on the Series X and PS5 versions that haven’t been revealed yet, including RT support. So let’s take a look at what we’ve seen so far.

The materials, lighting, and physics in Volition’s latest game are a major leap in quality compared to previous Saints Row games. Gone are the flat, simplistic skin and clothing shaders from the last Saints Row of 2013, replaced by more realistic materials. Regardless of how you style your character – and the possibilities here are limitless – there is always a respectable base level for model quality. The texture quality in the game world is also sharp and comfortably utilizes the 10 GB VRAM of our RTX 3080. All in all, the level of detail in the world is already significantly more appropriate for a project intended for a PS5 and Series X release. The headlights of the cars are highlighted with an impressive volumetric effect, adding streaks of light and giving the scene a satisfying sense of depth. The object physics also impresses right away, with explosive scenes making a huge impact as barrels burst open and bridges collapse.

After this rather more focused part of the preview we were released into the open world and it was here that our RTX 3080 and Core i7 7700K system struggled to maintain the 4K 60fps in this build of the game. Dropping the resolution to 83 percent on each axis, however, restores 60fps without sacrificing ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO), shadow detail, or world draw distance.

The Saints Row reboot offers a huge range of options and each setting is updated directly in-game, with the game world appearing on the right when we change the presets. For example, we can see that the RTAO settings “Low”, “Medium” and “High” look broadly similar, but switching between “Ultra” and “Off” reveals clear differences. Suddenly, rich shadows appear all over the landscape and objects blend more naturally into the scene. I would have liked to have seen more RT support in the form of reflections or global illumination – and who knows, maybe that will be the case in the final version – but RTAO is a nice touch and I hope it comes to PS5 and Series X will be available as part of an RT quality mode. For now though, we’ll just have to wait and drink tea.

In the settings, I also looked at the shadows and the SSR presets. Both offer good scalability and unlike the RTAO setting, the difference between each quality level is more noticeable. For example, the shadow setting primarily affects the quality of indoor sunlight and shadows, and provides a significant performance boost when complexity is reduced. By eye, our RTX 3080 could just about get it maxed out here without exceeding 60 fps as long as we kept the resolution scale at 83%. High is certainly acceptable, but anything below might be too much of a sacrifice. Another adjustment parameter, Scene Detail, changes the quality of shadows and terrain (e.g. trees in the distance). With the Low, Medium, and High settings offered, the High setting is essential to avoid visible pop-ins, especially when moving in a vehicle at high speeds

While RT reflections aren’t offered, screen-space reflections are available in four quality settings from “Off” to “High” and again, the benefits of the high setting make it difficult to compromise. This increases the accuracy of the screen-space reflections, making them a reasonable substitute for a more physically accurate RT version. This is also where the PS5 and Series X versions will ideally land, as you’ll clearly notice the difference in water-based missions with medium or low SSR settings.

The remainder of my three-hour session with Saints Row focused on the so-called “side jobs,” which include leaving bad reviews at restaurants, fleeing the police and delivering contraband, and flying in a wingsuit to sabotage rival businesses. Each of these side jobs had visual highlights, with the time of day being reflected in the lighting, particle effects, and physics of the game. There are car chases through canyons that put the spotlight on the density of oncoming grass, while volumetric lights come to the fore as dust kicks up from the cars ahead. It’s not consistently beautiful, but there are definitely moments where Volition’s engineering produces visually stunning results.

Given that this is an early build, perhaps unsurprisingly, there were some technical issues related to stability. For example, I had a crash where my save was deleted, which isn’t ideal for a limited-time preview event. But again, that’s not terribly surprising for what is likely to be a relatively old build of a complex and unpredictable open-world game. We’ll have to wait and see where the final pack takes us, but what I saw was more than enough to understand where the Saints Row franchise is headed.

As the game releases in the second half of August, we’ll be taking a close look at not only the final PC version, but also the situation on consoles with a full technical analysis. I’m hoping that given the scalability of the settings we’re seeing here, there’s room for a 4K 30fps mode with RT enabled on PS5 and Series X, as well as a 60fps mode without RT and maybe some other graphics tweaks . And it will be exciting to see how the experience feels on the last-gen devices. Will it be 1080p 30fps or something else? In the end we have to wait and see. For now, however, this year’s Saints Row reboot is a promising open-world sandbox title, with impressive character customization options, mission types, and an underlying technology that will hopefully scale well across consoles old and new.

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Originally written by Thomas Morgan, Senior Staff Writer, Digital Foundry